The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus, particularly to an image recording apparatus for recording an image by emission of ink.
In such an image recording apparatus as an inkjet printer, the command and tag data are removed from the transfer data transferred from a personal computer and host computer of a workstation and the image data is extracted; then a recording head is driven according to the image data, in general cases. The recording head is provided with a register for storing the image data. The recording head is driven according to the image data stored in the register and ink is emitted to a recording medium, whereby image is recorded (Patent Document 1). In recent years, the aforementioned image recording apparatus is used to produce color films for the organic electroluminescent display (EL) and liquid crystal display.
[Patent Document 1]                Tokkaihei 11-138798 (Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication)        
Assume that the definition becomes higher as the dot pitch S1 of the filter pattern (print pattern) C of the color film gets smaller than the nozzle pitch S2 of the recording head H. Then if the recording head H is tilted in the scanning direction as shown in FIG. 8, a pattern can be formed in such a way that the nozzle pitch S3 as viewed from the scanning direction is reduced. If the recording head is not tilted in the scanning direction, the same image data will be transferred from the start point of the film pattern to the end point, for example, when the same pattern is formed. If the recording head H is tilted in the scanning direction S as described above, the emission pattern from the nozzle (hereinafter, also referred to as an ink emitting nozzle) may differ according to the degree of the tilt at the start point and end point of the film pattern C. Accordingly, the same image data cannot be used, hence image data must be transferred.
As the definition of the film pattern gets higher, the number of the recording heads to be installed and the number of the nozzles of a single recording head tends to increase. With the increase in the number of recording heads and nozzles, there is a reduction in the duration of time to transfer the image data from the host computer in conformance to the emission from each nozzle. If the image data transfer speed becomes incompatible with emission from each nozzle, the emission speed must be reduced in order to make it compatible, with the result that the time required for image recording is unnecessarily prolonged.